On 27Jul, I had made booking at Lemon Tree Amarante Beach Resort, Goa for stay on 25Sep.
Due to official commitments, I had to cancel the travel- on 13Sep: Cancellation ID: TGUA0000044526. The cancellation policy was as follows:
Cancellation and changes Cancellations made later than 21-Sep-10 12:00 AM and No-Show, will attract the cost of the first night (including taxes) and administrative fee as penalty charge.No penalty (except for administrative fee) shall be charged for cancellations upto 21-Sep-10 12:00 AM.Administrative fees for cancellation and changes: INR 300 Cancelling your stay: Cancellations can be made online. Cancellation can be done from the Hotels tab of travelguru.com hotel home page.
All refund requests must occur within 60 days of hotel check-out. Any refund for checking out early or for no shows will be given at the sole discretion of travelguru.com.If you wish to book multiple rooms, you must use a different name for each room or the duplicate reservation may be cancelled by the hotel.The above cancellation policy is indicative and is subject to change at any time
Even the cancellation confirmation mail stated Refund amount as INR 13950.00.
However, there was no update in my credit card account till 04Oct (after 20 days). So, sent a mail to them. Reply came from Pratibha on the same day that refund amount will come to my credit card a/c in ’next 4 working days’.
No development till 15Oct. Sent another mail. Same person replied back stating that the amount is processed. When I check the credit card account, I saw some meagre amount- like 2000 INR!
This time, I called them on 19Oct. She said it was a wrong communication from her side. Her manager will get back to me! After I sent a mail reminder, the manager (Shailesh) responded that the amount will come in ’3 working days’ and he also added "Your refund not been processed & going un-noticed has raised an alarm in the existing process. We have begun putting a comprehensive plan in place to provide better and more timely information to you. We request your co-operation till the above mentioned time frame and we should make sure that we speed up on processing of the refund". Highly impressive!!
Unfortunately no update till today (25Oct) made me call them up again. 1st time, I was told that they will call me in ’5 mins’ since they are in meeting. Although I gave my phone number, by this time, I expected them NOT to call me. So, I called after 1 hour and one Amol told me that it was not processed since they do not process refund request for 1 or 2 persons. They wait only when the number is substantial. So, he has done something and in ’4 working days’!
Now what?
For sure, this will be last transaction with travelguru.I will also use Facebook and Twitter to publicise their responsibility and commitment.
Is there anything else I can do? Do not know. So, thought of seeking your advice.
Update 28Oct10:
A little search in the internet and a little more innovativeness helped me in getting access to the TraveGuru Superboss’ email id! A simple short mail to him did the trick! I got the refund now in 2 days flat!!